TR: FROM PATCHY TO CLASSY

A few of you like my trip reports, thanks. mostly they have been skiing in some poor conditions way up some mountain that i had to use my hiking boots to get to.

Well today on my birthday i headed out. I had a plan that if we recieved 12 inches of snow, that i was going to summit mount baldy, and ski alta's most prized possession, MAIN CHUTE. Well the snow fell, deeper than 12 inches so it was on.

Only a few people had been out and about when i started hiking. it was quiet, sun was out and the powder was looking good but thin. You catch a view of baldy about 30 minutes into the hike.

My plan was to skin up the north ridge of baldy (pictured) , which is consistent climb all the way from the base. When i was on the shoulder i noticed 2 people headed up under the chute and the only reason people would be there was to boot up main chute. It was on, I could not be beaten to this line on my birthday even if it sucked. I powered up the last 1500 vertical. Topping out on the chute to see the other group 200 vertical feet from the top.

When i caught glimpse of the chute, i could not believe my eyes, it looked like there was multiple feet of snow in it. The party in the chute too shelter on the edges, and gave me the go ahead to drop in........ There was multiple feet in it, when the weather comes up lcc, main chute gets tons of wind deposit.

EPIC. is the only way to describe dropping into a nasty run in waist deep snow on your birthday in early october. I hit one rock up top, no big deal. The rest of the couloir was as amazing as the first turns. the snow was unbelieveable. I got to the exit, and tip toed on my skis down through the rocks and captured this photo. this was one of the most amazing things thats happened in my life.....

I headed over to the top of wildcat to make a few turns with my buddie robby, who was waiting over there. (none of my friends wanted to ski this thing) we made 2 laps from wildcat to the angle station then skied to the base totally satisfied. And in shock of what went down on this day.

Threads like this are awesome, we need more of these as the season comes in. Super awesome way to spend a birthday too, I wish I had a reason to buy motherships or some other fatter ski. I need to move somewhere like that.

he wrote the book the 'chuting gallery', which i have read and refer to often, anyone who wants to get into the wasatch's classic lines should pick up, he is also one of the worlds finest ski mountaineers.

That's got to be a little bit of a boost of confidence knowing you beat andrew mclean up and he took a picture of you.. that's so sick. I was up there on Saturday, it was pretty fun for Oct 3rd, but it wasn't like this anymore. Keep it up!

Oct 6 2009 1:49PM

All times are Eastern (-4)

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